I am not even sure what to say about this…I am totally incredulous that someone would think that a 22 caliber rifle is a reasonable gift for a four year old…that a parent wouldn’t keep it locked up at all times…and that once again the I didn’t think it was loaded comment comes up.
But this is a tragedy that didn’t have to happen:
A 5-year-old boy accidentally shot his 2-year-old sister to death in rural southern Kentucky with a rifle he had received as a gift last year, authorities said.
The children’s mother was home at the time of the shooting Tuesday afternoon but had stepped out to the front porch for a few minutes and “she heard the gun go off,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary White said. He said the rifle was kept in a corner and the family didn’t realize a bullet was left inside it.
White told the Lexington Herald-Leader the boy received the .22-caliber rifle as a gift.
“It’s a Crickett,” White said, referring to a company that specifically makes guns, clothes and books for children. “It’s a little rifle for a kid. … The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun.”
And I find it incredible that essentially a toy company makes an actual weapon that is designed precisely to appeal to minor children and no body has a problem with that.
I’m sorry, but that was no accident. That was criminal negligence and needs to be prosecuted.